Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage name Eminem (often stylized as EMINƎM) and by his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter, and actor. Eminem, along with his solo career, is a member of his group D12, and also one half of the hip hop duo Bad Meets Evil, with Royce da 5'9". Eminem is one of the world's best-selling music artists, the best-selling artist of the 2000s, and the best selling rapper of all time. He has been listed and ranked as one of the greatest rappers of all time by many magazines, including Rolling Stone Magazine which ranked him 82nd on its list of The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The same magazine declared him "The King of Hip Hop". Including his work with D12 and Bad Meets Evil, Eminem has achieved ten number-one albums on the Billboard 200. As a solo artist, he has sold more than 150 million albums worldwide. In the United States, he has sold 49.1 million albums and 42 million tracks. After releasing his independent debut album Infinite in 1996, Eminem rose to mainstream popularity in 1999 with the release of his major-label debut album The Slim Shady LP. The LP also earned Eminem his first Grammy Award, in this case for Best Rap Album. His next album was the Marshall Mathers LP, which was released in 2000 and is the best selling rap album of all time, selling 12.5 million copies in the U.S. and 35 million worldwide. Eminem followed this in 2002 with The Eminem Show, which is the second best selling rap album of all time, selling 11.3 million in the states and over 30 million worldwide. Both of these albums won Best Rap Album Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LPs. This was followed by another studio release in 2004 titled Encore. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005 and releasing his greatest hits album Curtain Call, although he did release a compilation of rappers signed to Shady Records in 2006, titled Eminem Presents: The Re-Up. To end his hiatus he released his first album in five years titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. In 2010, Eminem released his seventh studio album Recovery. Recovery was an international success and was named the best selling album of 2010 worldwide, joining The Eminem Show, which was the best seller of 2002. Eminem won Grammy Awards for both Relapse and Recovery. The next year, Em teamed up with fellow Detroit rapper Royce da 5'9" to form Bad Meets Evil and release Hell: The Sequel after their debut single Fast Lane. In 2013 he released The Marshall Mathers LP 2, making the Marshall Mathers series the best selling rap series ever, despite having only two installments. The Marshall Mathers LP 2 won two Grammys, giving him a total of 15 in his career. In 2014, he released two songs and was featured in many more of SHADYXV, which celebrates the fifteenth year anniversary of Shady Records. On December 15, 2017, Eminem released his ninth studio album, Revival. Despite being deemed a failure by many, it still hit number one on the Billboard Top 200 chart, doubling second place. He followed up the critical failure of Revival on August 31, 2018 by dropping a surprise album Kamikaze dissing many critics and fellow rappers, with cover art paying homage to License To Ill. Kamikaze was also panned by critics, but not as much as Revival. Commercially however, Kamikaze performed much better than Revival and was embraced by fans. The album brought his beef with Machine Gun Kelly to its height, with Kelly releasing Rap Devil with an accompanying music video only 3 days later. On September 19, 2018, Eminem fired back at Kelly with "Killshot," breaking a YouTube record for music videos despite depicting only a still image of the cover art. On January 17, 2020, Eminem released another surprise album, this time titled "Music To Be Murdered By," paying homage to the Alfred Hitchcock album of the same name. Eminem has opened other ventures, including his own record label Shady Records with his manager Paul Rosenberg. He also has his own radio channel, Shade 45 on Sirius XM Radio. In 2002, Eminem starred in the hip hop drama film 8 Mile which was inspired by his life. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, becoming the first rap artist ever to win the award. He has also made cameo appearances in The Wash (2001), Funny People (2009), The Interview (2014), and the television series Entourage. He also executive produced the movie Southpaw and was meant to star in the lead role, before backing out. His close friend and former Shady Records rapper 50 Cent still played a role in the film. Eminem also created several songs of the movie's soundtrack. In 2012, Eminem was in the top 5 of the most popular Musicians in the US, based on internet streams. [1] Personal Life Drug Problems: Eminem has publicly admitted to an addiction to prescription sleeping medications Vicodin, Valium and Ambien. Eminem had previously taken recreational drugs and alcohol during the beginning of his career but was able to keep it under control. Eminem's addiction to prescription sleeping medication began in 2002 when he was working on his film, 8 mile. He was reportedly working around 16 hours a day, and was having sleeping problems. An associate provided Eminem with a Ambien that knocked him out. In 2005, after the release of Encore, Eminem entered a career hiatus. After the Anger Managment tour in the United States, Eminem cancelled the european leg of the tour to enter rehab for an addiction to sleeping medication. The next year would bring more personal problems with his remarriage to Kimberly Scott which resulted in filing for divorce weeks after the marriage and his best friend and fellow D12 member Proof being shot dead in a bar fight. His addiction would peak in December 2007 when he passed out in his bathroom after overdosing on methadone. He was found and taken to the hospital where he was told that he would have died if found 2 hours later, having taken the equivalent of 4 bags of heroin. He references this in the songs Castle and Arose to conclude his 2017 album, Revival. Discography Studio Albums Main article: Eminem Discography * 1996: Infinite * 1999: The Slim Shady LP * 2000: The Marshall Mathers LP * 2002: The Eminem Show * 2004: Encore * 2009: Relapse * 2010: Recovery * 2013: The Marshall Mathers LP 2 * 2017: Revival * 2018: Kamikaze * 2020: Music To Be Murdered By Extended Plays * 1997: Slim Shady EP Compilation albums * 2005: Curtain Call * 2006: Eminem Presents: The Re-Up Non-Album Singles * 2018: Killshot Category:Male Category:Detroit Rappers Category:MidWest Rappers Category:Rappers Category:White hip-hop musicians Category:White Rappers